Fire and Fur Don't Mix
by DarkJadedRose
Summary: Tabitha and Kurt pairing; After an incident between Amara and Kurt, Kurt's fur is charred. How can romance bloom out of that, i have no idea. I really like odd pairings, as you may have noticed. Review and let me know if you like it.


I do not own any of the X men. By the way I'm thinking of writing an action fic, but I don't know how well I'd do it. If possible I'd like suggestions for an action fic, and of course it will be a romance. So give me a pairing you would like to see along with your suggestions when you review this here story. Thanx! And "Hölle Nein" means Hell no in German. And "Traurig" means sorry. ************************************************************************  
  
Part 1:  
  
The Danger room was locked up since they weren't planning on giving any sessions that day, due to Logan's impromptu trip to Canada but heavy sighs were clearly heard through out the empty hallway from that particular area.  
  
"Kurt, stop!" A girl's voice was clearly heard.  
  
"You vant me to stop?" A soft accented voice responded sadly.  
  
"No that means don't stop!" Nothing was heard for a little while, until a scream resounded around the school. "Oh My God! Kurt, I'm so sorry!"  
  
Two minutes later, with Kitty's help, Scott phased into the room and pinched his nose when he smelled something awful.  
  
"It smells like something's burning." Scott's eyes blinked a couple of times when Amara walked towards him from a dark corner, her eyes guiltily looking at the floor. "What-How did you get in here?"  
  
Amara stared at her feet with conviction. "Kurt and I thought it would do us good to have some extra training sessions so he bamphed us into the room." Scott stared at her unbelieving but didn't question her lie. He had snuck into the room along with Jean a few times himself and didn't want to seem like a hypocrite so he just crossed his arms.  
  
"And than what happened?" Amara gulped.  
  
"Well, it seems that as we were, um, fighting, my powers got a bit out of control and I ended up slightly burning his fur, but only a little." Amara was fighting back tears.  
  
"Okay Amara, you and Kitty go upstairs and I'll see how bad it is." Kitty grabbed Amara's hand and phased them through the door.  
  
"So how, like, was it?" Amara looked at Kitty, rolled her eyes and walked away. Kitty just shrugged her shoulders and tried to find Rogue and Jean, she had learned at a young age from her mother to "like, spread the good news". And it wouldn't do any good to keep anything this good to herself.  
  
***  
  
"Kurt you have to come out sometime!" Scott had tried unsuccessfully to find Kurt who just kept bamphing to whatever dark corners he could find as soon as Scott got near. Scott sighed. "Kurt just come out."  
  
"Nein, you have not seen me, it looks vorst than it smells." Kurt's voice sounded forlorn and depressed. Scott sighed again.  
  
"I'm sure it doesn't, just come out, all right!"  
  
"Okay." Scott scrunched up his nose as the smell got stronger. He turned around when he felt the tap on his shoulder and came face to face with a charred Kurt. His fur had black splotches where it had been singed badly and the fur on his neck was curled at the edges where the fire had been nearest. Scott swallowed deeply and tried not to laugh while at the same time trying to breath through his mouth.  
  
"You see, I told you! I look horrible!" Kurt bamphed away, leaving a laughing Scott in the danger room. Scott's laughter quickly stopped when he realized that he had no way of getting out.  
  
"Kurt." No one responded. "Kitty!" Once again he was replied with silence. "ANYONE!"  
  
Part 2:  
  
"Hey, it stinks in here, has toad been making house visits?" The words came from the cherry colored mouth of a tall blond girl.  
  
"Hey Boom Boom, like, what's up?" Kitty ran up and hugged her friend.  
  
"Nothing much, now tell me, were you cooking again?" Tabitha smirked expecting the petite brunette to wrinkle her nose, like she always did when she was insulted. Instead Kitty laughed.  
  
"No," Kitty grabbed both of Tabitha's hands and leaned in confidentially. "Amara and Kurt were, like, you know what in the danger room and than Amara totally fired up and now Kurt's fur is, like, burnt."  
  
Tabitha looked confused. "What do you mean 'you know what'?" Kitty leaned in and whispered a few things in Tabitha's ear. Tabitha's mouth began to take the shape of an O.  
  
Than she smirked. She dropped her bag in the middle of the floor and ran up to see Kurt face to face. She knocked on the door and waited patiently. In a few seconds she knocked again more forcefully.  
  
"Go avay!" Kurt sounded thoroughly depressed. Oh this has to be good, Tabitha thought. She ran downstairs and grabbed Kitty's arm, phasing herself through the wall and than pushing Kitty out the door.  
  
"Like, how rude!" was heard from the hallway. Tabitha turned around and looked at Kurt's back. He had the inducer on, but the inducer couldn't cover up the foul smell.  
  
"I told you to go avay!" He turned around and caught sight of Tabitha and groaned. "Oh this just makes it better, much better!" He knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it. He turned around and flopped on the bed, leaving behind some fur that had rubbed off. Tabitha giggled and sat down beside him, reaching out and touching his skin. "Ouch! That hurt, can you please be careful?"  
  
Tabitha quickly turned off the inducer before he could notice and saw how bad the damage was. "Geez Smurf I didn't know ya had it in you man!"  
  
"I told you to leave me alone! Vhat is it that you don't understand?" Kurt bamphed away and tried to find someplace where he could wallow in self pity. He truly didn't want to be near anyone. He had taken a few showers and the smell had softened slightly, but not enough to avoid comment. And now that Tabby was around he knew the jokes definitely wouldn't stop.  
  
***  
  
Kurt jumped slightly at the light touch on his shoulder; he had been on the roof staring at the view towards the brotherhood house. "I'm sorry Kurty, if ya want I'll rent a couple of movies and we can watch them tonight and I promise I won't say anything about the smell or your new look or your promiscuity." Kurt raised his eyebrows in question to the last word. Tabitha shrugged. "Learned that in health."  
  
Kurt thought about it. "All vight, it's fine. And you vill get me some goobers, ja?"  
  
"K, anything for you, blue." Tabitha winked and walked away, swinging her hips as usual. Kurt just stared at her and wondered if it would have been better her than Amara. He shook the thought out of his head.  
  
"Tabitha and me? Hölle Nein!" He pursed his lips and got up to go to the kitchen, he was hungry and one of the perks of being smelly was that everyone left the area, so he would be able to eat in peace.  
  
Part 3:  
  
Tabitha and Kurt laughed as they watched Jackie Chan fall off the building. It was about 10 at night and it was dark outside. Tabitha had picked several good comedies and Kurt had forgotten about the morning issue. He just watched the movie comfortably with Tabitha. Before she had left for the brotherhood, they would spend the evening watching movies, even if they were boring just to spend some time together. He had been interested in her than but it didn't have a chance to develop into anything more than a close friendship.  
  
He gazed at Tabitha and thought about the time they were pulling pranks at the carnival and how sympathetic she had been when Toad had ruined his night when he had first met Amanda's parents. They had spoken on the phone a couple of times a week, him having extra sessions in the danger room when they received the phone bill the first week she had moved away.  
  
Seeing clearly because of his night vision, Kurt looked at Tabitha's face. He noticed little things like her strong, curved jaw and how her black berry lips curved into a mischievous smile when she found something funny, most of the time something painful or embarrassing. He saw the icy blue eyes that seemed to, at the same time, burn with fire. He noticed her tan and how it bought out the light blondeness of her hair. He had always thought she was cool in her own punky way. And now he began to see her in a deeper light. Amara had just been a little tickle while he waited for something more genuine, but Tabitha would be more. She would be the sole girl in his life, meaning more to her than even Amanda, and he would give her all the love she-.  
  
"Stop staring at me like that blue boy, you're creeping me out."  
  
"Traurig." He turned back to the movie contrite and stared at the screen, still thinking about Tabitha. He would've never guessed what was going on in her head.  
  
***  
  
Tabitha had caught him looking at her, and she couldn't figure out why. She felt slightly weirded out, she couldn't read his eyes. She thought about how she felt when she found out why Kurt had ended up getting burned by Amara. She had found it funny at first, but now she wasn't so sure she still did. When she first came into the picture she had found Kurt cute and funny, and his accent was way cool but while she found him attractive she had never really wanted to have anything more. But now after hearing how he had gotten close to someone who had no one to be in the way, it made her feel down.  
  
She looked at him through her peripheral vision. He had turned the inducer off and was wearing his pajamas, a T-shirt and shorts. She had thought of him as too skinny before but now she saw how his body was lean and athletic, not at all skinny. His fur was still messed up but the non burned parts were soft against her bare elbow. She blushed (for the first time in her teen life) slightly at her thoughts and felt uncomfortable. She was after all very sure of herself, never doubting that she could have whomever she wanted, and Amara would be no problem to get out of the way but right now she didn't feel so certain. She ran her tongue over her dry lips and leaned back against the pillows. She hadn't noticed that Kurt was staring at her again. She just stared at the screen.  
  
***  
  
Neither one of them paid much attention. After the movie was over they only went over the funny stuff that happened at the beginning, not noticing that neither of them could mention the end.  
  
Part 4:  
  
Tabitha woke up the next morning and stared at her ceiling when she heard someone call her.  
  
She sat up quickly in her bed and looked around freaked out. Tabitha mouthed okay and got up. She ran to the bathroom to wash up and grabbed a pair of low riders and a cropped top. She bounded down the stair in her orange flip flops and walked into the office without knocking, figuring he had "sensed" her coming in anyway.  
  
"Good morning Tabitha." The professor smiled at her kindly. "How are things going with your father?" Tabitha winced at the mention of her dead beat dad.  
  
"Not too great, he's sorta mad at me. I've been staying with my grandma for a while." Tabitha was brief and decided not to mention that her grandma didn't want her around either. The professor had caught her thoughts accidently though and was filled with concern.  
  
"I wanted to speak to you about your stay." Tabitha straightened up.  
  
"Hey if you want me to leave all you gotta do is ask." She had immediately become defensive; wary of being somewhere where she was unwanted.  
  
"Actually, that's what I wanted to speak to you about, if you would like to give the institute another try. I know how hard it was for you to adjust to the rules and regulations due to your, um, rather bohemian upbringing, but if we could work something out, you would be a valuable member of the team." The first thing that popped into her head was Kurt's face. She mentally shook her head.  
  
"Um, work what out?" The professor smiled.  
  
"Well, you would have to be in by ten thirty p.m. on the weekends and nine thirty on the weekdays. Your grades should be no lower than a B- and if they are than you would have to enroll in one of the tutoring programs at school. Just because you're a mutant does not mean education isn't important." Tabitha tuned the professor out as he spoke about the value of education, carefully nodding her head at the appropriate moments without paying attention. Her mind drifted on the benefits of being here. Cutting him off she gave the professor her answer.  
  
"K, professor, I'll do it but I need a little leniency, I hate to be stuck inside." The professor smiled.  
  
"All right Tabitha. I still have your uniform. We'll return it to you promptly, you may go now."  
  
Tabitha left the office suspicious on his immediate agreement. She figured she was on the losing end of the bargain but didn't care. She had her reasons. She wasn't gaining anything being at her grandmother's house and she figured it would be better to be here where people cared about her, and where she cared about people, or at least some of them anyway.  
  
She walked by the living room and caught sight of a rather quiet Rogue. She was sprawled on an overstuffed armchair with her legs dangling over the side and she was reading a book, probably a vampire story. Tabitha threw herself onto the sofa and propped her feet on couch. She stared at Rogue, a couple of seconds later gaining her attention.  
  
"What?" Tabitha smiled despite Rogue's ill tone. She knew the Goth chic was just putting up a front. They had a little more in common than most would expect, liked the same books and heard the same music only difference is that Tabby read and danced to it cause she found it fun while Rogue just did it cause she was gloomy.  
  
"I'm back in the X men." Rogue looked up and smiled.  
  
"That's nice, ya plannin' on stayin' this time?"  
  
"May be, you know me, I got places to go and people to see." She got up and left. Her mind began to drift to a few new things she'd like to introduce to the X men, like fun. She climbed the stairs intent on finding Kurt; she had an idea for his "stench" problem.  
  
***  
  
He had just come out from his fifth shower that day (he had assumed he'd smell better after each shower so he took one the first ten minutes of every hour he's been awake, it was one in the afternoon) when she had bumped into him.  
  
"Hey Kurt, how 'bout you take a nice lil' bubble bath." Kurt's eyebrows rose. Tabitha mentioning a bubble bath did not help his current situation.  
  
"Vell, vhy?"  
  
"Vell blue boy, I have one that smells like mangoes and I thought that it would help your," she pinched her nose, "B.O." Kurt gave her a dirty look and walked into his room. Tabitha laughed. She took the bottle and left it by his door, knocking on it before she left to Kitty and Rogue's room. Deciding to ask Kitty's opinion on her little problem.  
  
***  
  
"Oh my God! You totally like Kurt!" Tabitha put her head in her hands, praying for patience. She couldn't believe Kitty could be so loud. "When did this happen? How did this happen? Why did this happen?!"  
  
"I don't know. It just did. I was fine until I thought about what you said, about what they did, than I started to feel weird."  
  
"You mean, like, jealous."  
  
"Huh?" Tabitha said confused.  
  
"The word is jealous."  
  
"No I wasn't."  
  
"You totally are, now stop arguing and, like, tell me what happened."  
  
"No I wasn't, anyway, than last night I caught him looking at me and thought that may be he feels that way too."  
  
"Eek! Oh my God, that's so cool. You and Kurt! Geez, I would have never guessed! Well I probably should have, I mean all he did was mope around when you, like, left the institute. We all thought he was going to, like, leave us for the brotherhood; it was as if he was separated from his, like, Siamese twin!"  
  
"Kitty, relax man." Tabitha wanted to choke Kitty but at the same time hug her; she needed some kind of support. She felt too out of it. She was usually more confident, but this time she felt very insecure. She got up and said bye to Kitty planning on taking a walk over to the Brotherhood house. She hadn't visited them since she had come back and she wanted to see her friends.  
  
***  
  
"Hey Tabitha, what brings you here?" A smirking Pietro stood by the door of the brotherhood house not letting her pass. Tabitha just shoved him out of the way and strolled in, sitting on the busted up old brown couch.  
  
"I've joined the X men." Pietro just stared at her.  
  
"I thought they were boring." Tabitha shrugged.  
  
"Yeah well, I changed my mind." Pietro watched her study her nails carefully and grinned. He sat down beside her quickly.  
  
"Whoishe?" Tabitha's jaw locked.  
  
"Who's who?"  
  
"Wellwhichguyistheone?" Tabitha just looked at him like he was stupid. Pietro frowned. "Don'tgivemethatface,youknowyouneededareasontogobackthere,yousaidyou'dneverg obacktothathellholeandthat'sexactlywhatyou'redoing!"  
  
Tabitha gulped and muttered the name. Pietros eyes had never been so wide.  
  
"Kurt! Out-of-all-people-Tabitha! The-little-fur-ball? I-thought- you-had-more-taste-than-that." Pietro was slightly affronted that someone would decide to move all the way from wherever she came from for a blue hair ball. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, his grin still in place. Tabitha just snarled at him and shoved him away. Pietro kept smiling. She wants me, he thought.  
  
"Are the guys here?"  
  
"Nah,-they-went-to-grab-a-bite-to-eat,-they'll-be-here-later-on- though,-if-you-wanna-wait." Tabitha knew why he wanted her to stay. They had had a little fling when she was living in the brotherhood but that was over as soon as she got bored with him. She just said no thanks and left the house, promising to stop by tomorrow and have dinner with them. She walked home slowly wondering how she was going to work around her feelings for Kurt. She didn't want to be the one to tell him, she was too scared to do it. She just decided to let the currents flow and see where it takes her.  
  
Part 5:  
  
It took her straight into a naked Kurt. She had to go to the bathroom bad after drinking a can of soda at the brotherhood house and buying one on her way back to the institute, she ran into it without thinking and began to unbutton her jeans when she heard a high pitched scream. She looked up to find Kurt sitting in the tub, surrounded by mango smelling bubbles and a pink shower cap on his head. She just stood there and stared, so shocked she was unable to laugh at the image she had just instilled in her mind. It was the most ridiculous thing she had ever seen. She slowly zipped up her jeans her eyes never leaving him and backed out of the bathroom and walked to the other one down the hall.  
  
She did her business and just behaved like a zombie the rest of the afternoon, the effects didn't happen until a couple of hours later when she saw him come out of his room, smelling like a fruit basket and that's when she laughed and laughed and laughed. She laughed till tears came out of her eyes an angry Kurt leaving nothing behind but the mango like sulfuric smell from his teleportation. Bobby and Ray peeked out of their rooms and Scott and Jean out of Jean's, wondering what was going on.  
  
They shrugged their shoulders at each other and entered once again into their domains, having no idea that at that very moment all kind of confusion was gone from Tabitha's heart. She would tell him how she felt and than she would continue on with her life, no matter what happened. She didn't think her embarrassment could be any worst than Kurt's. He couldn't laugh at her or make her feel bad after she caught him in the tub playing with bubbles.  
  
***  
  
Kurt was angry, it was bad enough smelling like a burnt flesh but now he smelled like a mango. He got caught in the tub by Tabitha and he had screamed because he was surprised that she had walked in. Most of the time he just bamphed in the bathroom and hadn't remembered to lock the door. But the worst thing was that she had laughed at him. He was already feeling bad enough without having to have her add on to it with her insensitive jokes and reactions.  
  
He ignored the constant knocks on his locked door and had told Kitty he would go to Lance and tell her about the little love songs she was composing about him if she phased Tabitha in. He didn't want to speak to her. He turned off his inducer and looked at his fur. The burnt parts had fallen off and he only had a few patches of bare skin but he knew it would grow back quickly, he never lasted a week without his fur. He sighed and just lay on his bed sadly. Would he really want to be with a girl who couldn't take anything serious?  
  
He remembered about when her father had asked her to steal the money from the carnival. She had felt bad, and had told him. He had gone after her the next day, leaving the X house early in the morning. He had caught her outside of the school leaning against the wall. There she had explained what had happened. He never repeated what she had told him, it was too painful for him to even think about and she had lived it.  
  
He got up from the bed and looked in his secret stash for some ding dongs. He had liked her before and he liked her now. Perhaps his Kitty and Amanda episodes were only temporary glitches during his brief separation with Tabitha. He didn't know what he would do. He just hoped that in the end everything would be the way it was meant to be. He ate his cake silently and just watched Yu-Gi-Oh without another thought.  
  
***  
  
Tabitha had waited long enough, time for Boom Boom to make her appearance. She took out a time bomb and blew into it, smiling and than stuck it between the locks of the doors. Everyone else had already left, whether on dates or to pick up Logan at the airport. She had gotten Kitty to drag Rogue to some kind of teen club and ended up being completely alone with Kurt. She walked to the end of the hall and smiled mischievously when she heard the loud bang that came from the door, followed by a scream. She bounced quickly into the now open room.  
  
"Hey Blue Boy, I figured I'd make my appearance before going to bed." She looked around and couldn't find him anywhere. Suddenly she was bamphed outside. "Kurt! Kurt!" It was cold out there and she didn't have her coat on. "Come on man, I just wanted to talk to you!" She found herself shouting. She didn't know how she was going to tell him if he wasn't around but for some reason she felt that he was very near.  
  
"Look Kurt!" She shouted. "I like you Blue Boy. I don't care that you're furry and a weird color! I like you anyway. And I don't care that you smell like mangos man! Come down here!"  
  
"You vhat?" Tabitha turned around and smiled when she found him behind her.  
  
"I said I like you. So what ya gonna do about it?" Kurt's face broken into a wide smile and he grabbed her swinging her around. Tabitha laughed. "I take it you like me to, huh?"  
  
"Very much." Kurt hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.  
  
***  
  
Later on that night the rest of the gang came in and were very surprised to find a quiet house.  
  
"The house is still intact?" Jean said, slightly confused and only half joking.  
  
"Yup, it is." Scott looked around as if waiting for Kurt to bamph in or something to explode. Rogue turned around when she noticed the goofy grin on Kitty's face. She started to laugh loudly. The rest of the x men looked at her confused when they noticed what or who they were staring at.  
  
A happy Kurt and a smirking Tabitha walked in, acting casual, Tabby waved at the gang and Kurt just stared at her adoringly. Neither one noticed that the back of Tabby's hair was messed up with little bits of fur and that Kurt still had cherry colored marks on his neck.  
  
No one was surprised. 


End file.
